Big Kids, Big Problems
by MK3A2
Summary: Danny Archer and Cordell Brown don't get along too well anymore. Oneshot?


_A/N: As a disclaimer, I'm gonna say I'm a huge fan of Archer/Maddy, but, man, this needed to be written.  
_

Sun in the back streets of Freetown, beating down like a strong-armed woman taking a willow wand to a dusty carpet. Day-old rain, stagnating in pools along the sides of muddy, cobbled streets, makeshift gutters for a makeshift town. The smell, not so bad once you're used to it and the garbage in the road, because one man's trash is another man's treasure. Turn the corner and find anything, anyone – an old friend, a new enemy, perhaps both and neither all at the same time.

"Cordell – howzit, china?" I knew it was you, breaking my TV. I paid good cash for that, and just because I broke three windows in your house the last time we met, doesn't give you the right to wreck my only source of wholesome entertainment. I knew the Colonel would send you – in fact, I bet you even volunteered for it.

"Long time, pal." Not long enough. You're like a cockroach that you think you've squished up until it pops back up between your toes. You're like a fungus, a mushroom that you can never get rid of, no matter how many times you try. I tried everything I could to get out of this little errand, but I guess the Colonel had other ideas.

"How's Alice?" Alice, she always liked me more than you. You suspected, of course, but Cordell, let's face it – you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Alice loved me, and okay, she maybe loves you too, but it will never be the same.

"Ah, she's well, thanks." In fact, she's better than well, but I'm sure you know that from the Christmas card we sent you – you know, the one with the three of us on the farm, the one where her head is tilted back and she's laughing like she's the happiest on earth. I'm sure that cut you deep, Archer – I'd tell you about the mind-blowingly amazing sex we had that night, but this isn't the time.

"Tim must be in school, right?" The kid you think is your son. Tim looks more and more like me every day, I bet, and I bet it pisses you off to no end. I'd put good money on him having a big mouth and an even bigger attitude, just like me. You'll wonder where he got those bad manners, eventually.

"Ah, big kids, big problems, ya know?" Just like you and me. You have the balls to ask me how my wife and kid are, you _bladdy moegoe_ – that's right, _my_ wife and _my _kid. The only reason I haven't put a bullet through your handsome face is because it would break Alice's heart. She still expects you to come to dinner after you visit the Colonel, and if Danny Archer turned up dead in a Freetown gutter, I know she'd know it was because of me.

"Ja ja." You and me bru, we know all about problems, don't we? We've known each other a long time, after all. Long enough to know neither of us wants to lose this fight.

"I heard you got into a spot of trouble in the bush." I also heard it was an amateur's mistake – some said unlucky, most said downright stupid. Got too smart with the commander and he sent a border patrol to find you. It wasn't a coincidence that they knew to look for diamonds, Danny-boy.

"Ah well, you know the bush, right bru?" Where we hunted, where we fought, sweated, bled. Where we found _her_. We were like brothers back then, weren't we? "Company doing well?"

"Can't complain. Eleven wars on the continent; we're keeping busy." Your decision to leave haunts you, I can tell. You haven't been sleeping, haven't been eating. You said you left to find bigger and better things, to get off this godforsaken continent. But you shouldn't lie – you ran away from the one thing that could have redeemed you.

"So what, you're here on holiday?" As if you ever take holidays. As if you ever turn off. You're a professional soldier, Cordell, you don't know anything else – no creativity, and therefore always second best in the Colonel's eyes. Next to me, the shining star of the Company, you were nothing. Speaking of… "How's the Colonel?"

"He sends his regards." He isn't happy with you. He doesn't take disappointment well, especially not from his once-beloved prodigy. You didn't really expect him to just forgive you for turning your back, did you? You were like a son to him, and then you threw it all in his face.

"Good, good. Score us a loose, huh?" Something to take my mind off this; the Colonel, you, Alice. Something to take your attention off me.

"Smoking'll kill you, bru." But we don't really care about that. You must've forgotten how much Alice hates cigarettes. I remember a day when you refused to touch a smoke – the two of us went cold turkey those months in Angola, all for her.

"Ah, only if I live, right?" Like giving a dying man his last smoke before you plug him full of holes. Spare me the lecture. In fact, take this, you asshole. "That's for breaking my TV, bru."

You fucking hit me, you prick. Guess I should've seen it coming, huh. That's what happens when you trust a snake – it comes around and bites you the minute you take your eyes off it. I should've known better, and trust me, you won't ever catch me off guard again. I'll kill you, Danny Archer.

"Tell the Colonel I'll get his money. I'll come see him soon." He'll get his money, and you'll get yours. History be damned – I'll kill you, Cordell Brown.


End file.
